Archive for December 27th, 2012

New information about U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s promised new gun “control” legislation that seeks to ban “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” ammunition magazines has just been released. The California Democrat shares a summary of her proposed bill, entitled “Summary of 2013 Feinstein Assault Weapons Legislation,” on her Senate website. And by the looks of things, it seeks more than just bans. From Senator Feinstein’s website:

Summary of 2013 legislation

Following is a summary of the 2013 legislation:

Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:
• 120 specifically-named firearms
• Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one military characteristic
• Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds

Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
• Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test
• Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test
• Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans

Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:
• Background check of owner and any transferee;
• Type and serial number of the firearm;
• Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
• Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
• Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration

Note that part about “requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act.”

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

The discussion of the bill summary can be found on her website here. A .pdf of the bill summary is here.

Data through October 2012 from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price indices paints a not-too-pretty picture for Chicago-area residential real estate. Sandra Guy wrote on the Chicago Sun-Times website yesterday:

The Chicago-area housing market continued to lag national numbers, posting the largest non-seasonally adjusted single-home price decline — 1.5 percent from September to October and 1.3 percent year-over-year — of 20 major cities in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller national home price index released Wednesday.

Of the 20 cities, 12 saw housing prices drop.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

Recent rising prices have led to claims the U.S. housing market is in recovery-mode.

However, doubts remain. AnnaMaria Andriotis reported on the MarketWatch website on December 20:

But experts say that spike is largely due to the limited number of homes on the market. There were about two million existing homes available for sale at the end of November, which equates to the lowest housing supply since September 2005, according to the NAR. With fewer homes to choose from, buyers intent on purchasing a property are more inclined to offer a higher price or engage in bidding wars, housing analysts say, which ultimately drives prices up.

The problem is this limited inventory underscores a weakness in the housing market: Many sellers have resisted putting their home up for sale, out of concern that it will sell for far less than they paid for it, says Jack McCabe, an independent housing analyst in Deerfield Beach, Fla. That’s set off a domino effect. Because they’ve held off, supply has remained limited, in turn pushing prices up. “Prices have gone up in the last year because of this temporary, artificial market,” he says…

Separately, in some neighborhoods, median or average sales prices are rising because the mix of homes selling has been shifting toward higher-end, more expensive properties — not necessarily because the value of the typical home is rising, says Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.com, a real-estate listing site. Sales of existing single-family homes priced at $1 million or more increased 52% in November from a year ago, a trend that’s been in play for most of the year, according to the NAR.

From My Other Blog

Back on New Year’s Eve, I blogged about Swiss-born investment advisor/money manager Marc Faber appearing on Bloomberg Television’s In the Loop. The publisher of the monthly investment newsletter The Gloom Boom & Doom Report talked about precious metals (among other financial topics) and shared the following with viewers: I tell you, I prefer physical precious […] ...

Well-known investor, author, and financial commentator Jim Rogers was recently interviewed by Geoff Rutherford for Sprott Money News as part of their “Ask The Expert” series. The Singapore-based Rogers talked about a number of financial/investing topics, including what he believed are the safest countries to keep money and assets in. From their exchange recorded March […] ...

Regular readers of Offshore Safe Deposit Boxes might remember me mentioning IBV International Vaults last summer. I named the South African private vault as having the “World’s Best Offshore Private Vault Video.” (Editor’s note: I’ve encountered some really good videos lately for the second installment of this “competition,” which is scheduled to be held again […] ...

Just like St. James’ Safe Deposit in Leeds, England, there’s been another non-bank, private vault I’ve followed for some time that’s now opened its doors. Enter RockSafe, located in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah in Malaysia. From the Daily Express (Malaysia) on March 15: Another safe deposit service has debuted with Rocksafe Sdn […] ...